JD Wetherspoon shuck up social media last week, when it revealed it would ditch its own social media accounts as the company opts to share its news stories via its print magazines, website and app.
So why would such a nationally recognised business that serves 3 million pints a week to the British public want to lose what is highly regarded as a must-have marketing platform?
Cost-Saving Business Strategy
Think about it… the last time you walked into a Wetherspoons you undoubtedly seated yourself before you went up to the bar to pay for your grub. The removal of greeters and table-waiting staff saves on overheads. Wetherspoons’ business is based on a minimalistic, money-saving strategy that allows it to provide that same experience for its customers; cheap and cheerful booze and grub. So, with a dedicated team behind the design, writing and distribution of a social media strategy (believe us, we know) – ditching its social media accounts, and the resources and cost behind them, ties in perfectly with this.
Of course, there could also be another reason behind this.
Customer Engagement
Wetherspoons has struggled to engage and interact with its audience online.
Before departing Twitter they had just 44,000 followers, and 100,000 likes on Facebook, and it seems the content being put out there was not to the taste of most of their fans, as the average engagement rate of a Wetherspoons tweet was just six retweets and four likes. In addition, a fair amount of the social interactions they received online were customer complaints.
Negative reviews on the JD Wetherspoon HQ page. Photograph: Facebook/JD Wetherspoon
Long-Term Vs Short-Term Strategy
Most of the media coverage Wetherspoons received after announcing their departure from social media predicted it was a publicity stunt. But one week on, there’s still no evidence of Wetherspoons returning to social media.
But let’s think about the long-term and short-term impact on the business in terms of demographics. The next generation who will likely be Wetherspoons’ target customers will be millennials, shortly followed by generation Z, both of which are bigger users of social media than any other age group, though perhaps not the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
So short-term the impact will be minimal, but as younger generations want to connect with their favourite brands and interests on social media more and more, we predict that we’ll see a return to social media for JD Wetherspoons in the not too distant future.
